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The Great Conjunction
The Great Conjunction is an event that saw the merging of the realms of Abeir-Toril and Earth. From the perspective of Earth this occured in early 1999. The Great Divide Once, long ago, a terrible magical cataclysm fractured the cosmos into the realms of Toril and Earth, kept separate by unbreakable barriers set in place after the Chaos War and the creation of the Rod of Law. Over the following centuries magic would slowly drain from Earth and seep into Toril as anti-magic sentiment took hold in the hearts of men like Uther Pendragon. The forces of Good and Evil on Earth would call a stalemate, agreeing that the most important cosmological battle was between Order and Chaos. Eventually, the people of Earth would slowly forget the existence of magic. The Cosmic Linchpin Although the realms were separated from each other by vast gulfs of astral space there was one city that was reflected across all worlds. Known by many different names, the characteristics of this city remained consistent wherever it came into existence: * The City is always on the coast, where all the raw elements of nature collide together. * Massive buildings, towers, and great feats of architectural engineering dominate the city's makeup. * People from all walks of life naturally gravitate toward the metropolis, pulled by some unseen ethereal attraction. * Tunnels beneath the city delve as deep as the towers are tall; as above, so below. * The City is usually known as the cultural and artistic capital of the realm it inhabits. On Eberron the Linchpin was called Sharn, City of Towers; on Toril it was Waterdeep, City of Splendors. On Earth it was known as New York, City that Never Sleeps; and in the Shadowfell it was known as Evernight, the Wandering Dark. During the Conjunction of 1999 the cities of Waterdeep and New York fused into a metropolitan labyrinth that would later be called Tabularaza, the Blank Slate. The Conjunction That Wasn't 1992 Early in November of 1992 Richter von Brandt attempted to break the magical barriers that separated Earth from its' sister-realm of Toril in order to pave the way for the Lich Queen Vlaakith and her armies of Githyanki. To do this he had killed and collected the souls of the mages who had sealed Earth away in the first place, then forced their specters to take part in the ritual that would undo their spell. However before the ritual could be completed Richter was interrupted by Radigan Investigations who had been trailing him since the murder of Gideon Bliss. A brief battle ensued in which a fallen god reascended to Divinity and Richters' soul (whatever was left of it) was banished to the deepest pit of the Nine Hells. Although Brandt had been defeated the walls of the realms were still decaying and would have fallen if not for the quick thinking of Jack Radigan, who had been gifted a card from the Deck of Many Things that allowed him to rewrite one event from history as though it had never happened. With the help of the Fates card Jack was able to undo the damage to the barriers of the realm and stave off the Conjunction for another seven years. The Great Conjunction 1999 After his release from imprisonment in the Doomvault the demigod Orpheus waged a silent war on the Lord of Hell, culminating in an assault on Malsheem and Fortress Nessus. The Bard King sought retribution for the corruption of Eurydice and vengeance for the injustices he suffered at the hand of Asmodeus over the centuries. Orpheus battled Asmodeus through hell from the Serpents Coil to Avernus until finally he used the King of Hell's True Name to transform him into a garden snake, which he then ate in a feverish madness. Asmodeus defeated, Orpheus took his Ruby Scepter in hand and formulated a plan to bring Eurydice back that would shake the world to its core. The new King of Hell discovered that the Ruby Scepter was one of seven pieces of the Rod of Law, an artifact of ultimate cosmic power that could rewrite the fabric of reality. However, only the Sevenfold Knights were entrusted to carry the greatswords which held the other pieces so Orpheus began to hunt down and collect the sacred weapons. However he was unable to complete his mission due to three of the four greatswords being off-world as Minerva, Vulco, and Ghes'tat traveled the realms during the Eberron Expedition. Once the Sevenfold Knights finished their reality-spanning quest they returned to find Earth in turmoil and the majority of their order murdered. Orpheus found them soon after they returned but thanks to an early warning by the Sandman and the intervention of the Godking of Ireland the Knights were able to escape to the Feywild. Furious at being so close to his goal before having it ripped away Orpheus gave the Sevenfold Knights an ultimatum: deliver the last three Greatswords or the Bard-King would literally unleash hell upon the world by opening a gate between Avernus and the Prime Material. He promised an age of Dragonfire as such an act would set loose the trapped goddess Tiamat, who was unable to resist Orpheus's persuasion and would be under his thrall. With the help of their allies the party was able to bait Orpheus into a trap set in the floating satellite demiplane of Arkham. They laid the last of the Greatswords in hidden magical circle that would open a way into the Demiplane of Dread, hoping that once the Bard crossed the line he would be swallowed by the Mists of the Dark Powers. Orpheus arrived in Arkham on the back of Tiamat, making good on his threat to unleash Hell if the swords were not delivered to him. A brief battle ensued during which Trouble was grievously wounded, Vulco's weapon was taken, and Parker and Nils Thornfield were burned to death. However even with these setbacks the trap worked, Orpheus was swallowed by the Dark Powers with six of the seven pieces of the Rod of Law, and the party was able to escape Tiamat and revive their fallen friends. The prime material however, did not escape the cataclysm unchanged. With the return of chromatic dragons so too came the crumbling of the magical barriers that kept Earth separate from its sister-realm. The two realms began to merge into one, long lost empires were reawakened, and normal humans with latent magical genes were slowly turned into Elves, Orcs, Gnomes etc. The process of the Conjunction began in February of 1999 and would continue for months as more and more magic flowed back into the world. World Governments fell into chaos and disarray as new one rose to take their place. Many wars were fought, many lost their lives, but after a few years the dust would settle and a brave, new, magical world emerged from the ashes. In time the people of this world came to call it Urth-Toril (The Great Cradle of Life).